A/N: The Mummy Returns on the telly again plus my trashy shipper heart equals a random drabble that must be written before I explode, despite the fact I have other fics to write.
I hate my brain.
She's going to die.
That thought has passed through her head on many an adventure. But this time Clara truly believes it.
They'd ended up materialising in an ancient tomb on some planet. The Doctor promised it would be safe. A simple history lesson at most. See how the indigenous species buried and cared for their dead.
As usual he was wrong.
The Doctor had detected a distress signal coming from inside the centre of the tomb so naturally they had gone to investigate, despite Missy's protests and thinly veiled comments on the idiocy of it all.
As should have been expected, the tomb was full of booby traps.
Missy had narrowly avoided a flaming arrow to the head, the flames singing a few hairs much to the Time Lady's outrage. Clara had nearly been impaled through the stomach by a blade the size of her arm that shot out of the wall after stepping on a pressure pad, saved only by the warning hissing sound that allowed her to drop to the floor and duck underneath (ignoring Missy's remark of skewered dog as she'd stood and brushed herself off). The Doctor himself had almost fallen into a pool filled with what could be this planet's equivalent of piranhas, Missy and Clara's sudden grip on the back of his coat the only thing that stopped him.
When they'd finally made it to the room deep in the tomb where the signal came from, Clara was ready to slap whoever they were saving.
But that had turned out to be a trap too.
The source of the signal was a gem on the crown of the dead king in the coffin at the centre of the room. They had made their way to the coffin and all shared a look at the strangeness of the event. The Doctor had reached out to touch the jewel and the moment his fingers had brushed against it the chamber began to rumble. The trap setting off, having caught its unsuspecting and assumed grave robbers.
The trio had took off instantly as the room began to crumble around them, stone falling and crashing to the floor, splintering off in many directions. They had leaped across the crevice that had suddenly split the floor in two, widening rapidly as the area continued to quake around them, racing for the door and their escape.
A screeching roar reverberated around them as they continued to run. Clara's getaway was halted as something wrapped around and bit painfully into her right leg. She'd cried out as whatever had her in its grasp pulled her to the ground and dragged her back towards the opened pit behind them. She was yanked across stone and gravel that bit into her skin and clothes as her hands searched for purchase to stop her backwards momentum, failing as she was hauled over the edge into the fissure.
Her fingers had managed to find purchase on the lip of the crevice, halting her decent into the pit below. She looked down and saw lava swirling below, the bubbling heat hot on her face. She glanced at her leg and saw what looked to be a vine covered in, what felt like, steel-like barbs wrapped around her right shin, from ankle to knee, the source of which was somewhere deep in the lava below.
Clara had gritted her teeth and tried to pull herself back up, getting one forearm onto the stone floor before the creature tugged again with a shriek, dragging her back down. Her fingers dug into the rock again to keep from falling any further. She'd tried again, and this time managed to get her arms and chest up, her right forearm planted in front of her as a stable fulcrum while her left hand grasped tightly on a jagged piece of rock jutting out from the floor.
She could see Missy and The Doctor trapped in the doorway to the room, unable to come back in as portions of the ceilings and walls came down between their two points. Clara grunted as the creature tried to tug again, her hand tightening around the rock, the stone digging into her palm.
There was no way she could pull herself up and get out of this beast's relentless grip.
There was no way The Doctor or Missy could make it to her without significantly risking their own lives.
She could feel blood dripping down her leg under her jeans as the barbs burrowed deeper, as well as pooling around her hand as she clung to the rock.
She was going to die.
"Clara!"
The Doctor's panicked voice travelled across their distance making her look up. His face was stricken with fear and grief, unable to reach her as he struggled to think of a way to save her. She smiled sadly at him.
"Just go! Save yourselves!"
"No Clara, not without you!"
"I won't have you both regenerate because of me! Just get to the TARDIS and go!"
The Doctor shook his head, unable to give up just yet. Clara turned to Missy, who had been oddly silent, hoping to convince who she believed the more practical and less emotional of the two in this situation to grab The Doctor and drag him out.
But Missy wasn't looking at her. She wasn't even looking at The Doctor. The Time Lady was clinging to the ornate door frame with white knuckles, gazing at the falling rocks. Clara realised the psychotic alien was calculating, looking for a pattern in the chaos.
There was a roar and Clara jerked as the creature wrenched her back again, her grip faltering and the rock ripping into flesh as she was pulled over the edge again. Her fingertips strained but held as the beast continued to pull, the blood beginning to flow a little more freely down her leg.
Clara heaved herself back up with a laboured grunt, breathing heavily as she saw Missy still searching the caving in cavern. A second later the Time Lady's icy eyes locked with Clara's brown ones, resolve and intent clear in the alien's blue orbs.
"Missy! No!" Clara screamed, trying to stop The Mistress in her tracks. Her words seemed to fail as the Time Lady clenched her jaw, hands tightening their grip on the door frame as she moved her body weight from foot to foot, waiting for an opening. "Get out of here!" Distress was creeping more and more into her voice as she tried to get through to the psychotic alien's rational side. "Just get out of here!"
Missy took a deep breath.
"NO!"
The Time Lady shot forward, dodging the collapsing ceiling as it continued to fall around her. She screeched to a halt and teetered on her heels as a large piece of stone fell directly in front of her, smashing on impact.
"Missy!" The Doctor bellowed behind her, shock and worry lacing his scream. His fellow Gallifreyan took no notice as she skirted around the fires that had spurted up from the ground amongst the also disintegrating floor.
She ducked left and pressed herself against a pillar, waiting for that last gap opportunity she needed. Rocks continued to fall as both the creature and the tomb itself seemed to howl around them. Clara disappeared from view as the beast pulled her down again.
"Hang on Clara!" The Doctor yelled, watching the scene play out, unable to move. Slight relief washed through him as Clara's head and torso appeared once more, her right arm reaching forward for some sort of purchase.
Missy pushed herself away from the pillar, dodging two more piles of falling rock before she leapt forward, diving the last few feet to Clara, her hands wrapping around the human's arm. She pulled Clara up marginally, fighting the creature below's iron grip, before one hand reached for the collar of her puppy's jacket and grabbing a fistful of the material while the other clasped around the other brunette's neck.
"You're not going anywhere puppy," she snarled through gritted teeth as she hauled Clara up, "You hear me."
The Time Lady's hand moved from Clara's neck to clutch at the material of the black jacket between her human's shoulder blades as the two managed to combat the creatures pull together. Once Clara's upper body and left knee where up onto the stone floor, Missy leaned over the edge and stabbed at the strange vine with her pointed stick she still had hidden in her pocket. The beast screeched in pain and detached itself from Clara's leg, the limb darting back into the lava.
Missy hauled the human up to her feet and dragged her limping puppy back to the door as fast as they could sprint. The Doctor shouted encouragingly to them from the door, beckoning them with his hand as though the act would help. When they reached him he ushered them down the maze corridors and back to the TARDIS.
An hour later they were back floating through space.
Clara sat in one of the arm chairs in the library, staring into the fire that flickered in the fireplace. Adrenaline had left her long ago, the pain and tiredness from her injuries and blood loss had settled in, though the painkillers The Doctor had given her helped significantly. Her left hand and right leg were bandaged up tight, her leg propped up on one of the low tables in front of her.
She was brought out of her thoughts when Missy placed a cup of tea onto the side table next to her. Clara looked up at the Time Lady, who was smiling softly down at the human.
"Why did you come back for me?"
Missy's mouth lifted up slightly at her puppy's soft and confused question. She sighed and petted the other brunette's head.
"I've told you before poppet, nobody kills you but me." She lent down and kissed the top of her human's head before turning towards the door. "Get some rest My Clara."
Clara watched Missy leave the library, frowning deeply before she shook her head and gazed back into the fire, undamaged right hand reaching for the cup, warmth seeping into her palm as she took a drink.
Somehow, somewhat unsurprisingly, the tea was just how she liked it.